New Immigration Law

December 10 is the International Day of the Migrant,
and Puerto Escondido’s Instituto Nacional
de Migración (INM) threw a big party for the local
migrants at the Agencia Municipal, with the help of the
city’s business community. There was food and fireworks,
but the highpoint of the evening were the folk dance
troupes and a mariachi band from Nopala. The event was
heavily attended by both foreigners and Mexican nationals
alike. !Viva Puerto! salutes Subdelegado, Juan Carlos
Ruíz Méndez, Agente Federal, Rolando Trujillo Sánchez
and Agente Federal, Dulce Carolina Ortíz Ramírez not
only for the celebration but also for all their help to migrants.

New Immigration Law Facilitates
Permanent Residency

Subdelegado, Lic. Juan Carlos Ruíz Méndez

Important note: The following is only an overview of the
new law. Since the regulations are still being published, it’s
likely there will be more changes.

Do you have a degree in information science and
speak Spanish? Mexico wants to give you a permanent
residency visa. Or are you a well-off retiree? Or the American
grandchild of a Mexican citizen? These are but a few
of the ways that you may now be eligible for permanent
residency in Mexico.

The new law Mexican immigration law, which went
into effect on November 9, 2012, offers many avenues
to permanent residency, without your having to pass
through temporary residency first. Among them is a
point system for people with desired skills. But it also
includes changes that will affect retirees. The biggest
change is that, unless you already have an FM-3 or FM-2,
you will have to apply, in most cases, for a temporary or
permanent visa at your local consulate, NOT at an immigration
office in Mexico.

Migrants, Puerto Escondido

Under the new law, there are two types of residency visas:
temporary and permanent (more-or-less corresponding
to the earlier categories of “non-immigrant” and “immigrant”
or FM-3 and FM-2). A temporary resident visa
allows you to stay in the country for up to four years.
When you get this visa at a Mexican consulate, you will
have 180 days to enter the country and then 30 days in
which to register the visa at the local immigration office.

Migrants, Puerto Escondido

As before, there are 30-day and 180-day visitor visas.
But now, under certain circumstances, you can get
a visitor visa which will be good for 10 years. Although
you cannot stay in the country for more than 180 days at
a time with a 10-year visa, you can enter and exit as many
times as you wish during that period.

*Big change: You can apply for a temporary visa for a
period of one to four years, if you meet the requirements,
and not have to renew it each year. After four years, you can
apply for permanent residency, without leaving the country.
Otherwise you must apply for a new temporary visa at
a consulate.

The category of “rentista” has also disappeared. Now
the law speaks of retirees (jubilados). A rentista had to
show a monthly income of around $1,200 U.S. a month;
a retiree must receive public and/or private pension payments
of over $2,000 U.S. a month (400 times the daily
minimum wage in Mexico City — 62 pesos — at 13 pesos to
the dollar) or have almost $100,000 U.S. in the bank or in
other investments for a 12-month period.

People who currently have non-immigrant (FM-3)
visas will have to change them for temporary resident
visas at the local immigration office when they are up for
renewal, and retirees will have to meet the new income
requirements. However, Mexican investments, including
a house with a fideicomiso, may count towards partially
fulfilling the requirements.

You will be able to apply for permanent residency
after four years as a temporary resident. There are no restrictions
on how many months a year you must spend in
the country as there were with the old FM 2. You can also
apply for permanent residency at your consulate, without
ever having had temporary residency.

*Big change: Permanent residency is for an “indefinite”
period. Once you get it, you don’t renew it.

The regulations for the new immigration law are still
being published. It has still not been determined how
the point system will operate, but the law specifies that
points be given in the following eight areas:

I.

Education level;

II.

Work experience in areas of interest for the country
where there is high demand and low supply;